Mitch Diamond, director of sales and marketing
operations at McKesson summed up the role of
marketing operations as:
What is Marketing Operations?
In 2015, I interviewed ten marketing operation
leaders to understand what was happening with
this new function. Of all the definitions, I really like
this one from Danny Eisner, head of marketing
operations at MediaMath:
“Marketing Operations is really managing the
systems, data, and processes to make a scalable
revenue machine as efficient as possible. Working
with sales operations, and of course, sales,
together we are the revenue machine for the
company.”
More specifically, marketing operations:
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Is a unique function that most typically reports into marketing, not IT
Works as a technology group focused on
use, optimization, integration, awareness,
and recommendations
Partners closely with sales operations
Focuses on data management including data
hygiene, use, optimization, and insights
Provides
key
metrics,
reports,
analytics/insights, and funnel
Improves processes and helps institute best
practices, segmentation and campaign effectiveness
Executes, tests, QAs and improves campaign execution and performance
Strictly Marketing Magazine May/June 2016
“There are three key components of MO at
McKesson that we manage.
The first is the
technology infrastructure to enable marketing
functions. This includes the marketing automation
system, the database and the database strategy. We
also manage CRM. The second key component we
manage is the analytics and metrics processes for
the department, and this is really critical so we can
benchmark our performance and can continuously
improve. The third key component is managing
and optimizing key processes such as campaign
execution, lead management and budget tracking.”
What is a Unicorn?
What is a Unicorn and what in the heck does it have
to do with this discussion? Everything! We know
from fairy tales and folklore that a Unicorn is a
mystical creature that is rarely, if ever, seen. In the
world of marketing operations, a Unicorn is that
individual who understands technology, business,
and marketing. Having Unicorns on your team
ensures you have a real marketing operations
function, not an IT group that works with marketing
technologies.
According to Scott Brinker, a Unicorn (also called a
marketing technologist) is
“someone who has a hybrid between business and
technology, a strong background in engineering
and IT, is an early adopter of technology, but
someone who also understands the pragmatic
realities of scaling technology. But most
importantly, someone who brings those skills and
combines them with a deep love and passion for
the marketing mix. This is a technologist that
reports to the CMO, not the CIO.”